


Crazy People.

by FeliciaAmelloides



Series: A Oneshot a Day... [32]
Category: Lord of the Flies, NTverse
Genre: Crack, F/M, M/M, So technically no archive warnings apply but I put it there just in case, Soulmate AU, The Underage is only implied, crossed over two of my own weird AUs, post-island AU, weird pairings
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2018-02-01
Updated: 2018-02-01
Packaged: 2019-03-28 19:30:57
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply, Underage
Chapters: 1
Words: 2,279
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/13910667
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/FeliciaAmelloides/pseuds/FeliciaAmelloides
Summary: Elizabeth Clive's husband is in the Navy. She runs an orphanage by the coast.One day, the orphanage suddenly gets filled with a group of boys who were rescued from a mysterious island in the Pacific...





	Crazy People.

**Author's Note:**

> So this is a weird combination of one of my prized AUs and post-canon Lord of the Flies, which is why it doesn't make any sense. I think I got Jack in character roughly, which is good, but Maurice is very OOC. I made this mostly for my own enjoyment, so I doubt that you'll understand it (I made the AU and I don't understand it, so it must look even stranger to a reader with no prior knowledge of it)
> 
> Anyway, enjoy the parts which aren't about my OCs or Maurice (I think that I'm the only person in the fandom who imagines him with such a weird appearance but I kinda like it so I'm not going to change it) and please pretend that the naval officer has a name. In my AU (which is very deliberately on crack) he has a really stupid name and I thought that it wouldn't fit the nature of this, so I just left him nameless.

Elizabeth Clive was what she considered to be a perfectly normal woman. Already reaching the autumnal years of her life and still wishing that she was in the spring, she had achieved her long-time dream of escaping her awful family and moving the coast to start up a small orphanage for boys. And it had all happened because the boy she liked for years as a teenager had grown into a man and married her, giving her an excuse to run away with him.

It hadn't taken her long to realise that he only saw her as a friend in need back then, and even at that moment he didn't love her at all.

So she ran her orphanage and pretended that everything was okay.

It had been raining quite heavily when it happened. She was tucking the little ones in bed whilst the older ones sat downstairs and chattered when the door to their home swung open and a loud shout reverberated through the house.

"I'M BACK!!!!!" As usual he was filled with enthusiasm and joy, and her heart skipped a beat. Feeling like a child herself, Lizzie made sure that the boys were alright before racing down the stairs to greet her husband in barely restrained excitement...

Oh.

Alongside the grinning noirette with his moustache and finely pressed historically inaccurate naval uniform was a large group of boys. There were so many that she couldn't even tell the amount- 30, maybe? 40? All she knew was that not a single one was smiling or speaking. They all looked exhausted.

"Oh my goodness, please come in right away!" Like a worried mother she ushered the boys inside first, shocked at their torn clothing and bedraggled appearances. It appeared that they had been cleaned up a little, although one of the taller ones still looked a mess with reams of red locks wrapping around him like snakes.

Once they were all safely inside, she paused to look at her husband once more. He still seemed awfully upbeat, but she couldn't quite tell why.

For the second time, oh.

Peering out from behind him with an anxious expression was one of the strangest boys she had ever seen. His hair was much longer than the other boys' (whose hair appeared to have been cut recently, probably by the neat-freak of her husband's insane crew of former classmates) , almost reaching his mid-back in wily brown curls. He was also wearing an actual outfit despite it being far too large for him, and the bottoms of his once-white trousers dragged in the mud outside the building.

And then there were his eyes... A beautiful shade of gold which actually was closer to the metal than her own husband's, something which she thought was completely unnatural.

'So it's him then.'

Faking a smile, she said simply to the straggler, "And what about you then? Do you want to join the others?" She didn't blame him for what was happening- in a way, she blamed herself for not realising that this would be a problem so soon- so the concern in her voice was genuine. He didn't seem to have been through the worst of it- that title most certainly went to the blond who had walked through just moments before, biting his lip and avoiding the other boys as if they were monsters- rather, he took on the appearance of being the 'favourite'.

Slowly he nodded and stepped away from the naval officer, trembling slightly. She took him by the wrist and led him in to the others.

Her boys stared at the newcomers in bewildered shock and vague sympathy. Some of them even looked afraid. Her husband leaned in close and whispered, "These are the boys from the plane crash. We picked them up from some island in the Pacific." Her eyes widened, and suddenly gazing upon the boys had a whole new meaning.

So her husband had finally brought them home?

"So why bring them here? Shouldn't they be back with their own families?" He sighed, rare tiredness entering his usually grinning face.

"War. It drives people apart. I've sent out a message to HQ, but we need to wait the night before their families can be informed of their presence here. There's enough space for everyone, right? From what I've seen, they don't like that blond one in the corner much, so he might need to go somewhere else..." he continued mumbling worriedly into her ear until she quietly replied.

"There's space. And he can go somewhere else if he wants to. I think that those little ones should get some rest now- probably the others too," Steeling herself, she turned to face her husband, green eyes meeting amber, "But what about *him*?" Lizzie watched as her husband froze. They both knew who she was referring to. The special one.

"H-he has friends here. I don't... It doesn't matter what I think about it." Voice cracking, his gaze turned to the floor. She wondered if he felt any shame towards having met this boy. He wasn't at all as he'd described him. She'd thought all these years that he would be female. But even upon seeing him just once, she knew.

"He's not what you expected, is he?" She asked softly, hiding her pain.

"Hey. It's better than twilight." A weary smile tugged at his lips, and she could already feel the guilt pouring out of him like the rain outside.

"What are you going to do?" A faint suspicion whispered to her that he wasn't going to do the sensible thing here- he always had been an idiot after all; no matter how much she loved him even she could admit that. But she knew that if he actually cared about that child then he would do the right thing. He sighed again.

"Avoid him." He chose the right option. Thank God. Or... thank Lucifer? She'd never quite been sure when it came to him.

After a moment more, he nodded to her tersely and left, probably to recollect his thoughts. That left her with these poor boys to deal with.

First, she took the little ones away and made sure that they had proper night clothes and a bed each. Luckily, she didn't have too many boys at the moment, so there were plenty of beds to spare. It hurt her heart to know the reason why so few children remained despite the ongoing war.

Then, little ones safe, she returned to the bigger ones. Their voices caught her off guard, and she silently stood by the door; listening.

"We can't just run! It's a bad idea." Some sort of authority figure by the sounds of it.

"But Chief-" Subordinate.

"Maybe you should reconsider?" Pushover.

"No way-" Probably a fool.

"Whatever the Chief says is final-" Mediator.

"Shut up!" The fool again.

"I agree. Maybe all of you should just shut up and listen." That voice sounded a little different to the others... More imposing even than the authority figure, yet so quiet too. He was the one to watch for.

Lizzie had learnt these social cues over her many years of running the orphanage. A leader was designated, the others followed. They argued, it led to conflict, and it was up to her to fix it. How very predictable, even in circumstances like this.

"Finally," an irritated remark, "Now, we shan't run because if we do we'll just get sent back here. And we don't associate with *him* either. For now, stay put. And if any of you-" Authority Figure paused, probably for dramatic effect, "*Any of you* tell all about the Island- well, I'm sure you know what will happen." Another pause in which he probably demonstrated his threat.

At this point, Lizzie entered. The boys were huddled in a circle with the ginger one at the front, clearly the authority figure there. To his left was a dark haired boy whose very appearance sent chills down her spine- the one to watch out for. And to his right was the special one. So he hadn't been the one they wanted to avoid? Then again, she supposed it made sense. He was only special to her and probably to her husband after all. The blond who still sat as far away from them all as possible was clearly the outcast. Her boys sat around him, seemingly preferring his company over the tribe-like group of boys.

"Everyone," her voice was commanding, yet soft. She didn't want them to fear her, but she didn't want them to rebel either. "If you'd please follow me, I'd like to take you to your rooms now. I understand that you have been through some horrible things over the past few months, so please know that this is only a temporary setup for the night. Tomorrow your families will be contacted as soon as we can find them and you should get to return home." She finished with a small reassuring smile. The boys in the circle glared at her, other than the special one who simply watched, his nervous aura persisting. The blond stared blankly, the boys flanking him keeping him close by.

Heart thundering, she approached the blond and her boys first, knowing that he was probably her best bet for now. "Hey," she began gently, "If you don't want to share a room with them, I won't make you." When he looked at her in both relief and confusion, she hurriedly explained, "My husband mentioned that you don't get along with the others, and from what I've seen so far I'd say that he was right." He stared for just a moment, then slowly nodded.

She smiled warmly and took his wrist again, her boys quickly getting up and following him. All three of them were very polite, so different to the boys she usually got at her orphanage. They were brothers, and the type who became wiser after going through traumatic experiences rather than more and more troubled inside.

The room they shared was nice, and they quickly led the blond boy to a bunk on the other side of the room to theirs, probably out of respect for his privacy. He seemed to try and fail to smile at them. Lizzie looked at him and then quietly asked, "Could I get your name?"

Shuddering a little, he forced out a stiff "I-it's Ralph.", his voice cracking. Using her smile to comfort him, she replied with her own introduction.

"Well, it's nice to meet you Ralph. I hope that the others don't push you around too much. I'm Elizabeth." Some matrons never gave away their first names to their orphans, but Lizzie didn't believe in that. She preferred that her boys saw her as their mother rather than some random hag keeping them prisoner, and so she let them call her whatever name they pleased. Still, she kept her nickname private mostly out of preference. She liked that only her naval officer and her (few) friends called her that.

Finally managing a very weak, trembly smile, Ralph awkwardly turned and fell onto the bed immediately. She quickly beckoned the brothers to her and asked them to look after him for her before returning to fetch the others.

After a long time, everyone was settled in a room. Lizzie had been careful to separate the authority figure from the one to watch out for, placing the former in a room of minor subordinate types and the latter in a room of the tougher looking boys who would be able to hold their own against him. That seemed to be the easiest way.

The special one was the last to go up again, as she wasn't quite sure what to do with him. Double checking all of the rooms in her head, he waited patiently by the door before finally cracking and speaking.

"U-um... Ma'am?" Ma'am? That was an unusual title coming from one of her orphans.

"You can call me Elizabeth if you'd like. Ma'am seems awfully formal, don't you think?" Once more she found herself smiling as she did with most of her orphans. He returned it shyly.

"Then... Elizabeth..." He seemed even more awkward somehow as he tried the name on his tongue, "I wanted to apologise."

"Apologise? What for? You've only just arrived..." Before he even said anything she could tell where this was going. He stared at her in mild confusion, eyes taking on a foggy, far away look for a split second.

"I-I don't know yet... But something's going to happen. It sounds silly, but I can feel it. And I think it might be my fault, but I don't know if I'll be able to apologise when it happens. So I'll apologise now. That way, you know." As he spoke, her heart hurt even more. The fact that he could already sense what was about to transpire before it had confirmed it. He was that special one for sure.

"You shouldn't apologise. It's not your fault, or anyone else's. That's just the way these things work. Now come along." And with that, she took his wrist again and led him up the stairs to a bunk, having finally realised which one was free.

These boys were clearly very troubled at the moment, but she hoped that each would be able to recover and lead a relatively normal- or at the very least safe and secure- life from then onwards.

Things changed, and so did people. So it would all turn out well in the end.

She forced herself to believe that as she wandered up to bed herself, mind racing and heart aching.

**Author's Note:**

> I don't know what this ended up being about. Sorry for the late update.
> 
> Prompt- A person frantically trying to run a daycare of crazy people.
> 
> I changed it from a daycare to an orphanage. Weird that I actually mentioned the daycares in the last oneshot, huh?
> 
> Original Number- 274.


End file.
